Proposed Initiative Enters Circulation

Disability Access Litigation. Initiative Statute.

SACRAMENTO – Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the proponent of a new initiative was cleared to begin collecting petition signatures today.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

DISABILITY ACCESS LITIGATION. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires that persons with disabilities who sue property owners or businesses for construction-related accessibility violations give 120 days notice before filing suit. Bars suit if the property owner or business corrects the violation within 120 days. Requires that notice of violations be provided in the same way as notice of a lawsuit. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Potential reduction in state court costs related to civil claims, which could be in the range of a few million dollars annually. (15-0110.)

The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1768 and the Attorney General’s tracking number is 15-0110.

The proponent of the measure, Andrew K. Rauch, must collect the signatures of 365,880 registered voters (five percent of the total votes cast for Governor in the November 2014 general election) in order to qualify it for the November 2016 ballot. The proponent has 180 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials by July 25, 2016. The proponent can be reached at (619) 515-1140 or rauch@rauchplc.com.